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#GMenuModel represents the contents of a menu -- an ordered list of menu items. The items are associated with actions, which can be activated through them. Items can be grouped in sections, and may have submenus associated with them. Both items and sections usually have some representation data, such as labels or icons. The type of the associated action (ie whether it is stateful, and what kind of state it has) can influence the representation of the item.

The conceptual model of menus in #GMenuModel is hierarchical: sections and submenus are again represented by #GMenuModels. Menus themselves do not define their own roles. Rather, the role of a particular #GMenuModel is defined by the item that references it (or, in the case of the 'root' menu, is defined by the context in which it is used).

As an example, consider the visible portions of this menu:

An example menu # {#menu-example}

There are 8 "menus" visible in the screenshot: one menubar, two submenus and 5 sections:

  • the toplevel menubar (containing 4 items)
  • the View submenu (containing 3 sections)
  • the first section of the View submenu (containing 2 items)
  • the second section of the View submenu (containing 1 item)
  • the final section of the View submenu (containing 1 item)
  • the Highlight Mode submenu (containing 2 sections)
  • the Sources section (containing 2 items)
  • the Markup section (containing 2 items)

The [example][menu-model] illustrates the conceptual connection between these 8 menus. Each large block in the figure represents a menu and the smaller blocks within the large block represent items in that menu. Some items contain references to other menus.

A menu example # {#menu-model}

Notice that the separators visible in the [example][menu-example] appear nowhere in the [menu model][menu-model]. This is because separators are not explicitly represented in the menu model. Instead, a separator is inserted between any two non-empty sections of a menu. Section items can have labels just like any other item. In that case, a display system may show a section header instead of a separator.

The motivation for this abstract model of application controls is that modern user interfaces tend to make these controls available outside the application. Examples include global menus, jumplists, dash boards, etc. To support such uses, it is necessary to 'export' information about actions and their representation in menus, which is exactly what the [GActionGroup exporter][gio-GActionGroup-exporter] and the [GMenuModel exporter][gio-GMenuModel-exporter] do for #GActionGroup and #GMenuModel. The client-side counterparts to make use of the exported information are #GDBusActionGroup and #GDBusMenuModel.

The API of #GMenuModel is very generic, with iterators for the attributes and links of an item, see g_menu_model_iterate_item_attributes() and g_menu_model_iterate_item_links(). The 'standard' attributes and link types have predefined names: %G_MENU_ATTRIBUTE_LABEL, %G_MENU_ATTRIBUTE_ACTION, %G_MENU_ATTRIBUTE_TARGET, %G_MENU_LINK_SECTION and %G_MENU_LINK_SUBMENU.

Items in a #GMenuModel represent active controls if they refer to an action that can get activated when the user interacts with the menu item. The reference to the action is encoded by the string id in the %G_MENU_ATTRIBUTE_ACTION attribute. An action id uniquely identifies an action in an action group. Which action group(s) provide actions depends on the context in which the menu model is used. E.g. when the model is exported as the application menu of a #GtkApplication, actions can be application-wide or window-specific (and thus come from two different action groups). By convention, the application-wide actions have names that start with "app.", while the names of window-specific actions start with "win.".

While a wide variety of stateful actions is possible, the following is the minimum that is expected to be supported by all users of exported menu information:

  • an action with no parameter type and no state
  • an action with no parameter type and boolean state
  • an action with string parameter type and string state

Stateless

A stateless action typically corresponds to an ordinary menu item.

Selecting such a menu item will activate the action (with no parameter).

Boolean State

An action with a boolean state will most typically be used with a "toggle" or "switch" menu item. The state can be set directly, but activating the action (with no parameter) results in the state being toggled.

Selecting a toggle menu item will activate the action. The menu item should be rendered as "checked" when the state is true.

String Parameter and State

Actions with string parameters and state will most typically be used to represent an enumerated choice over the items available for a group of radio menu items. Activating the action with a string parameter is equivalent to setting that parameter as the state.

Radio menu items, in addition to being associated with the action, will have a target value. Selecting that menu item will result in activation of the action with the target value as the parameter. The menu item should be rendered as "selected" when the state of the action is equal to the target value of the menu item.

Hierarchy

Index

Constructors

Properties

gTypeInstance: TypeInstance
parentInstance: GObject.Object
$gtype: GType<MenuModel>
name: string

Methods

  • Creates a binding between source_property on source and target_property on target.

    Whenever the source_property is changed the target_property is updated using the same value. For instance:

      g_object_bind_property (action, "active", widget, "sensitive", 0);
    

    Will result in the "sensitive" property of the widget #GObject instance to be updated with the same value of the "active" property of the action #GObject instance.

    If flags contains %G_BINDING_BIDIRECTIONAL then the binding will be mutual: if target_property on target changes then the source_property on source will be updated as well.

    The binding will automatically be removed when either the source or the target instances are finalized. To remove the binding without affecting the source and the target you can just call g_object_unref() on the returned #GBinding instance.

    Removing the binding by calling g_object_unref() on it must only be done if the binding, source and target are only used from a single thread and it is clear that both source and target outlive the binding. Especially it is not safe to rely on this if the binding, source or target can be finalized from different threads. Keep another reference to the binding and use g_binding_unbind() instead to be on the safe side.

    A #GObject can have multiple bindings.

    Parameters

    • sourceProperty: string

      the property on source to bind

    • target: GObject.Object

      the target #GObject

    • targetProperty: string

      the property on target to bind

    • flags: BindingFlags

      flags to pass to #GBinding

    Returns Binding

  • Creates a binding between source_property on source and target_property on target, allowing you to set the transformation functions to be used by the binding.

    This function is the language bindings friendly version of g_object_bind_property_full(), using #GClosures instead of function pointers.

    Parameters

    • sourceProperty: string

      the property on source to bind

    • target: GObject.Object

      the target #GObject

    • targetProperty: string

      the property on target to bind

    • flags: BindingFlags

      flags to pass to #GBinding

    • transformTo: TClosure<any, any>

      a #GClosure wrapping the transformation function from the source to the target, or %NULL to use the default

    • transformFrom: TClosure<any, any>

      a #GClosure wrapping the transformation function from the target to the source, or %NULL to use the default

    Returns Binding

  • emit(sigName: "items-changed", removed: number, added: number, ...args: any[]): void
  • emit(sigName: string, ...args: any[]): void
  • forceFloating(): void
  • This function is intended for #GObject implementations to re-enforce a [floating][floating-ref] object reference. Doing this is seldom required: all #GInitiallyUnowneds are created with a floating reference which usually just needs to be sunken by calling g_object_ref_sink().

    Returns void

  • freezeNotify(): void
  • Increases the freeze count on object. If the freeze count is non-zero, the emission of "notify" signals on object is stopped. The signals are queued until the freeze count is decreased to zero. Duplicate notifications are squashed so that at most one #GObject::notify signal is emitted for each property modified while the object is frozen.

    This is necessary for accessors that modify multiple properties to prevent premature notification while the object is still being modified.

    Returns void

  • getData(key?: string): object
  • Gets a named field from the objects table of associations (see g_object_set_data()).

    Parameters

    • Optional key: string

      name of the key for that association

    Returns object

  • Queries the item at position item_index in model for the attribute specified by attribute.

    If expected_type is non-%NULL then it specifies the expected type of the attribute. If it is %NULL then any type will be accepted.

    If the attribute exists and matches expected_type (or if the expected type is unspecified) then the value is returned.

    If the attribute does not exist, or does not match the expected type then %NULL is returned.

    Parameters

    • itemIndex: number

      the index of the item

    • attribute: string

      the attribute to query

    • expectedType: VariantType

      the expected type of the attribute, or %NULL

    Returns GLib.Variant

  • getItemLink(itemIndex: number, link: string): MenuModel
  • Queries the item at position item_index in model for the link specified by link.

    If the link exists, the linked #GMenuModel is returned. If the link does not exist, %NULL is returned.

    Parameters

    • itemIndex: number

      the index of the item

    • link: string

      the link to query

    Returns MenuModel

  • getNItems(): number
  • getProperty(propertyName?: string, value?: any): void
  • Gets a property of an object.

    The value can be:

    • an empty #GValue initialized by %G_VALUE_INIT, which will be automatically initialized with the expected type of the property (since GLib 2.60)
    • a #GValue initialized with the expected type of the property
    • a #GValue initialized with a type to which the expected type of the property can be transformed

    In general, a copy is made of the property contents and the caller is responsible for freeing the memory by calling g_value_unset().

    Note that g_object_get_property() is really intended for language bindings, g_object_get() is much more convenient for C programming.

    Parameters

    • Optional propertyName: string

      the name of the property to get

    • Optional value: any

      return location for the property value

    Returns void

  • getQdata(quark: number): object
  • This function gets back user data pointers stored via g_object_set_qdata().

    Parameters

    • quark: number

      A #GQuark, naming the user data pointer

    Returns object

  • getv(names: string[], values: any[]): void
  • Gets n_properties properties for an object. Obtained properties will be set to values. All properties must be valid. Warnings will be emitted and undefined behaviour may result if invalid properties are passed in.

    Parameters

    • names: string[]

      the names of each property to get

    • values: any[]

      the values of each property to get

    Returns void

  • isFloating(): boolean
  • isMutable(): boolean
  • Queries if model is mutable.

    An immutable #GMenuModel will never emit the #GMenuModel::items-changed signal. Consumers of the model may make optimisations accordingly.

    Returns boolean

  • itemsChanged(position: number, removed: number, added: number): void
  • Requests emission of the #GMenuModel::items-changed signal on model.

    This function should never be called except by #GMenuModel subclasses. Any other calls to this function will very likely lead to a violation of the interface of the model.

    The implementation should update its internal representation of the menu before emitting the signal. The implementation should further expect to receive queries about the new state of the menu (and particularly added menu items) while signal handlers are running.

    The implementation must dispatch this call directly from a mainloop entry and not in response to calls -- particularly those from the #GMenuModel API. Said another way: the menu must not change while user code is running without returning to the mainloop.

    Parameters

    • position: number

      the position of the change

    • removed: number

      the number of items removed

    • added: number

      the number of items added

    Returns void

  • Creates a #GMenuAttributeIter to iterate over the attributes of the item at position item_index in model.

    You must free the iterator with g_object_unref() when you are done.

    Parameters

    • itemIndex: number

      the index of the item

    Returns MenuAttributeIter

  • Creates a #GMenuLinkIter to iterate over the links of the item at position item_index in model.

    You must free the iterator with g_object_unref() when you are done.

    Parameters

    • itemIndex: number

      the index of the item

    Returns MenuLinkIter

  • notify(propertyName: string): void
  • Emits a "notify" signal for the property property_name on object.

    When possible, eg. when signaling a property change from within the class that registered the property, you should use g_object_notify_by_pspec() instead.

    Note that emission of the notify signal may be blocked with g_object_freeze_notify(). In this case, the signal emissions are queued and will be emitted (in reverse order) when g_object_thaw_notify() is called.

    Parameters

    • propertyName: string

      the name of a property installed on the class of object.

    Returns void

  • Emits a "notify" signal for the property specified by pspec on object.

    This function omits the property name lookup, hence it is faster than g_object_notify().

    One way to avoid using g_object_notify() from within the class that registered the properties, and using g_object_notify_by_pspec() instead, is to store the GParamSpec used with g_object_class_install_property() inside a static array, e.g.:

      enum
    {
    PROP_0,
    PROP_FOO,
    PROP_LAST
    };

    static GParamSpec *properties[PROP_LAST];

    static void
    my_object_class_init (MyObjectClass *klass)
    {
    properties[PROP_FOO] = g_param_spec_int ("foo", "Foo", "The foo",
    0, 100,
    50,
    G_PARAM_READWRITE);
    g_object_class_install_property (gobject_class,
    PROP_FOO,
    properties[PROP_FOO]);
    }

    and then notify a change on the "foo" property with:

      g_object_notify_by_pspec (self, properties[PROP_FOO]);
    

    Parameters

    • pspec: ParamSpec

      the #GParamSpec of a property installed on the class of object.

    Returns void

  • on(sigName: "items-changed", callback: MenuModel_ItemsChangedSignalCallback, after?: boolean): EventEmitter
  • on(sigName: string, callback: ((...args: any[]) => void), after?: boolean): EventEmitter
  • once(sigName: "items-changed", callback: MenuModel_ItemsChangedSignalCallback, after?: boolean): EventEmitter
  • once(sigName: string, callback: ((...args: any[]) => void), after?: boolean): EventEmitter
  • Increases the reference count of object.

    Since GLib 2.56, if GLIB_VERSION_MAX_ALLOWED is 2.56 or greater, the type of object will be propagated to the return type (using the GCC typeof() extension), so any casting the caller needs to do on the return type must be explicit.

    Returns GObject.Object

  • Increase the reference count of object, and possibly remove the [floating][floating-ref] reference, if object has a floating reference.

    In other words, if the object is floating, then this call "assumes ownership" of the floating reference, converting it to a normal reference by clearing the floating flag while leaving the reference count unchanged. If the object is not floating, then this call adds a new normal reference increasing the reference count by one.

    Since GLib 2.56, the type of object will be propagated to the return type under the same conditions as for g_object_ref().

    Returns GObject.Object

  • runDispose(): void
  • Releases all references to other objects. This can be used to break reference cycles.

    This function should only be called from object system implementations.

    Returns void

  • setData(key: string, data?: object): void
  • Each object carries around a table of associations from strings to pointers. This function lets you set an association.

    If the object already had an association with that name, the old association will be destroyed.

    Internally, the key is converted to a #GQuark using g_quark_from_string(). This means a copy of key is kept permanently (even after object has been finalized) — so it is recommended to only use a small, bounded set of values for key in your program, to avoid the #GQuark storage growing unbounded.

    Parameters

    • key: string

      name of the key

    • Optional data: object

      data to associate with that key

    Returns void

  • setProperty(propertyName: string, value?: any): void
  • Sets a property on an object.

    Parameters

    • propertyName: string

      the name of the property to set

    • Optional value: any

      the value

    Returns void

  • stealData(key?: string): object
  • Remove a specified datum from the object's data associations, without invoking the association's destroy handler.

    Parameters

    • Optional key: string

      name of the key

    Returns object

  • stealQdata(quark: number): object
  • This function gets back user data pointers stored via g_object_set_qdata() and removes the data from object without invoking its destroy() function (if any was set). Usually, calling this function is only required to update user data pointers with a destroy notifier, for example:

    void
    object_add_to_user_list (GObject *object,
    const gchar *new_string)
    {
    // the quark, naming the object data
    GQuark quark_string_list = g_quark_from_static_string ("my-string-list");
    // retrieve the old string list
    GList *list = g_object_steal_qdata (object, quark_string_list);

    // prepend new string
    list = g_list_prepend (list, g_strdup (new_string));
    // this changed 'list', so we need to set it again
    g_object_set_qdata_full (object, quark_string_list, list, free_string_list);
    }
    static void
    free_string_list (gpointer data)
    {
    GList *node, *list = data;

    for (node = list; node; node = node->next)
    g_free (node->data);
    g_list_free (list);
    }

    Using g_object_get_qdata() in the above example, instead of g_object_steal_qdata() would have left the destroy function set, and thus the partial string list would have been freed upon g_object_set_qdata_full().

    Parameters

    • quark: number

      A #GQuark, naming the user data pointer

    Returns object

  • thawNotify(): void
  • Reverts the effect of a previous call to g_object_freeze_notify(). The freeze count is decreased on object and when it reaches zero, queued "notify" signals are emitted.

    Duplicate notifications for each property are squashed so that at most one #GObject::notify signal is emitted for each property, in the reverse order in which they have been queued.

    It is an error to call this function when the freeze count is zero.

    Returns void

  • unref(): void
  • Decreases the reference count of object. When its reference count drops to 0, the object is finalized (i.e. its memory is freed).

    If the pointer to the #GObject may be reused in future (for example, if it is an instance variable of another object), it is recommended to clear the pointer to %NULL rather than retain a dangling pointer to a potentially invalid #GObject instance. Use g_clear_object() for this.

    Returns void

  • watchClosure(closure: TClosure<any, any>): void
  • This function essentially limits the life time of the closure to the life time of the object. That is, when the object is finalized, the closure is invalidated by calling g_closure_invalidate() on it, in order to prevent invocations of the closure with a finalized (nonexisting) object. Also, g_object_ref() and g_object_unref() are added as marshal guards to the closure, to ensure that an extra reference count is held on object during invocation of the closure. Usually, this function will be called on closures that use this object as closure data.

    Parameters

    • closure: TClosure<any, any>

      #GClosure to watch

    Returns void

  • compatControl(what: number, data: object): number
  • Find the #GParamSpec with the given name for an interface. Generally, the interface vtable passed in as g_iface will be the default vtable from g_type_default_interface_ref(), or, if you know the interface has already been loaded, g_type_default_interface_peek().

    Parameters

    • gIface: TypeInterface

      any interface vtable for the interface, or the default vtable for the interface

    • propertyName: string

      name of a property to look up.

    Returns ParamSpec

  • Add a property to an interface; this is only useful for interfaces that are added to GObject-derived types. Adding a property to an interface forces all objects classes with that interface to have a compatible property. The compatible property could be a newly created #GParamSpec, but normally g_object_class_override_property() will be used so that the object class only needs to provide an implementation and inherits the property description, default value, bounds, and so forth from the interface property.

    This function is meant to be called from the interface's default vtable initialization function (the class_init member of #GTypeInfo.) It must not be called after after class_init has been called for any object types implementing this interface.

    If pspec is a floating reference, it will be consumed.

    Parameters

    • gIface: TypeInterface

      any interface vtable for the interface, or the default vtable for the interface.

    • pspec: ParamSpec

      the #GParamSpec for the new property

    Returns void

  • Lists the properties of an interface.Generally, the interface vtable passed in as g_iface will be the default vtable from g_type_default_interface_ref(), or, if you know the interface has already been loaded, g_type_default_interface_peek().

    Parameters

    • gIface: TypeInterface

      any interface vtable for the interface, or the default vtable for the interface

    Returns ParamSpec[]

  • Creates a new instance of a #GObject subtype and sets its properties.

    Construction parameters (see %G_PARAM_CONSTRUCT, %G_PARAM_CONSTRUCT_ONLY) which are not explicitly specified are set to their default values.

    Parameters

    • objectType: GType<unknown>

      the type id of the #GObject subtype to instantiate

    • parameters: GObject.Parameter[]

      an array of #GParameter

    Returns GObject.Object

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